Donald Endicott

“T” was born in Beverly, Massachusetts, raised in Boston, and educated at the Hopkinson School and Harvard College, class of 1899.  He attended the Harvard Medical School for one year, from 1899 to 1900.  After the war he worked in advertising for a while and married Ellen Derby Bellows, whom he had always loved since he had attended the Hopkinson School in the same class as her brother, who introduced them.   But he had to wait until her first marriage ended before he could marry her.  After their marriage, they lived in Walpole, New Hampshire during the summers and managed a wood lot there, planting trees, and cutting and selling wood.   During the winter, they lived at the Elliot Hotel on Commonwealth Avenue, in Boston.  He was very interested in maritime affairs, a relative on the Howe side of his family having been part owner and captain of a clipper ship called the “Reporter.”  He was the uncle of William Endicott (see below) who served in WWII, and the great uncle of William T. Endicott (see below), the author of this book. 

 

         His lineage:

         1.  (Gov) John Endecott, 1588-1665

         2.  Zerubbabel Endecott, 1635-1684

         3.  Samuel Endecott, 1659-1694

         4.  Samuel Endecott, 1687-1766

         5.  John Endicott, 1713-1783

         6.  Robert, Endicott 1756-1819

         7.  William Endicott 1799-1899

         8.  Henry Endicott 1840-1912            

         9.  Thorndike Howe Endicott (1877- 1965)

“T” was a driver with SSU VII of the Norton Harjes Ambulance Corps, from April to October, 1917, with the French Army on the Saint Quentin and Chemin des Dames fronts.  He was wounded at the St. Quentin front on July 6, 1917, when a shell fragment tore off the last two fingers of his right hand.  He was awarded the French Croix de Guerre for bravery under fire for driving 27 consecutive hours in rescue work.  

 

 He was then pronounced unfit for duty and returned to the U.S. in November, 1917 and joined the American International Shipbuilding Corporation in Hog Head, Pennsylvania.  In 1917, as part of the World War I effort, the US government contracted American International Shipbuilding to build ships and a shipyard at Hog Island. At the time Hog Island was the largest shipyard in the world, with 50 slipways.

T was one of two Endicotts who served with the French forces in WWI before the U.S. got fully into the war, the other being the flying Ace, David Endicott Putnam (see below). 

 

On April 6, 1917, the U.S. declared war on Germany.  But it wouldn’t be until the fall that America could get troops to France in sufficient numbers.  In the meantime, the French informed America that they needed medical personnel, including ambulance drivers, and T was among the many who volunteered for this work.  He was 40 years old at the time.  

 

There were two American ambulance corps working in the French army,  the American Field Service, and the Norton-Harjes.  Both actively recruited drivers from American colleges and universities, particularly Ivy League ones. Ambulance driving required them to serve under extremely dangerous conditions

 

The Norton-Harjes Ambulance Corps was created through the merger of the Harjes Formation of the American Red Cross and the American Volunteer Motor Ambulance Corps organized in 1914 by Richard Norton, son of Harvard professor Charles Eliot Norton.   Henry Herman Harjes was a millionaire French banker who wished to help Norton by donating funds and ambulances.  Norton's volunteers were attached to French combat units on the front as SSU VI and SSU VII.